When Two Are One
by VarekaiSoleil
Summary: Skara Hayes is orphaned at 17. She's been shipped off to Forks, Washington to live with her new foster family. When all hope is lost, she meets a beautiful stranger with a deadly secret. But will he be worthy of learning her own dark secret?
1. Chapter 1

When Two Are One

VarekaiSoleil

a.n.: Welcome to my freshest creation. Of the characters, I own only Skara, Aric, and Sean.

* * *

Bang. Explosions in my head that just won't quit.

* * *

A loud ringing sounded from every speaker in the room. She removed her left earbud.

"Good morning Forks High School! Here are your morning announcements…"

She replaced the earbud. She crossed her long legs into an Indian-style posture. The fluorescent lights of the front office burned her freshly-awakened pale gray eyes. Her hair was long, made of messy dark chocolate coils that were, for the most part, tossed up in a knot. A few hung loose around her face. She was plainly built, thin and average height, but with an exquisite face.

"Miss Hayes?" It was a woman in a dark gray suit jacket and matching skirt. "Miss Hayes?" She repeated. She touched the girls shoulder gently, causing a small but jolting reaction. She removed both earbuds.

"Good morning Miss Hayes, and welcome to Forks High School. Your first period is World Religions. There are two young men here from the class, come to escort you." The girl already hated this woman. She spoke like a machine. But she stood up, ignoring the robot-woman, and gathered her things.

Down the hall of the school's front office there was one "young man." Looked more like a boy, really. He couldn't have been older than fourteen. He was well-built, and well-dressed, for her tastes. His hair was an odd silver color, which did add to the years he appeared to have.

"Sean, this is Skara Hayes. She's in your first period. Skara, this is Sean Sullivan. Sean, where is Edward?"

Skara hated how he entered so perfectly on cue. But there he was, and on cue or not, she was glad he had entered. He stood without a word at first, his stature greatly surpassing her own, and even that of Sean. His hair was the color of the paint on a faded number two pencil. It fell to his shoulders in choppy yet stylish clumps.

"Edward, your hair has grown quite long," said Robot-Woman.

"Thank you. And this is?" He replied arrogantly.

"My name is Skara. You can call me Skara." She said, defying his arrogance. He stepped out from behind Sean, and she was taken aback by his size and musculature. Even the oversized band shirt he wore could not totally conceal his gym hours.

"I'm Edward Cullen. We should get you to class."

"Yeah, I'm ready when you guys are," responded Sean, as if he had been asked.

Edward glanced at her. Without a word, he took command of the room. As he turned to leave, Sean and Skara followed, obeying subconsciously. Skara's defiance of Edward had melted when she saw, as he turned to hide it, a mischievous smile gracing the corner of his perfect lips.

* * *

Back in the classroom, Skara took the empty seat between Sean and a stranger, who introduced himself as Artem. The teacher, Mr. Kroner, was a slightly portly man in his fifties or sixties. He spoke with a strong accent, from somewhere up north, and possessed friendly eyes protected by thick glasses.

"Welcome to the class Miss, ah, Hayes, is it?" He said. "We're just getting into some really interesting footage of the ancient Pagan villages of Scotland. I'll be collecting notes in two days when the film is finished."

She said nothing, only smiled softly in reply. The room darkened and the projector flickered on.

* * *

Just as the bell was about to ring, Skara woke up. The soft unsteady light from the projector had lulled her into a shallow sleep. She looked around, letting her eyes focus. She thought she saw someone looking at her, glaring at her. But just as he came into focus, Edward jerked his gaze away.

_What's his problem? _She speculated._ He's creeping me out…_

_

* * *

  
_

Skara flew through her next two classes on autopilot, her head in the clouds. Her math teacher droned on and on about trigonometric ratios, and in her art class, she merely doodled.

At lunch, she floated along through the waves of students funneling into the cafeteria.

"Skara!" She heard a familiar voice calling her name. She turned to see Aric Maeshowe, nearly drowned in the flood to the pizza line.

"Hi, Aric." She said plainly.

"Well what's wrong with you?" He asked, concerned.

"Nothing. I've just been thinking about this kid who's been creeping me out all day."

"Who? I'll beat him up for you." She couldn't tell if he was joking or serious. Probably both.

"Edward Cullen. Do you know him?"

"Yes… don't bother yourself with him. He has girls all over him all the time, or at least they try to be. His head's gotten nice and big... You don't want to contribute."

"Why?"

"Because you have dignity! Duh." Aric scoffed.

"I meant why does he always have girls all over him?" Stupid question.

"That's a stupid question," he replied, as if he read her mind.

She half gagged, half chuckled when the lunch lady dropped a mashed potato bomb on her tray.

* * *

Chemistry was her fourth period. Everyone had already donned their goggles for the lab assignment today. As she walked in, the teacher, Mrs. Clerk, giggled.

"Well hello there! You're new! Great!" Hooray, another bumbling idiot. "Welcome to Chemistry! Get yourself some goggles and we'll find you a partner."

The latter of these two tasks concerned Skara greatly, for as she scanned the classroom, there was only one person who had not been paired off.

"Um, can I work alone?" She saw, from the corner of her eye, that this caught Edward's attention.

"Well that's just not safe! Edward needs a partner. You're at station number six; he'll let you know what to do."

"Um, but…" Skara began to protest, but Mrs. Clerk herded her over to station six before she had the chance.


	2. Obliterated

AN: This is actually sort of a songfic… I disclaim ownership of the characters whom I have not created. Also, disclaimer on the works of Andy McKee, Atreyu, and any other artists whose names have been used.

* * *

II: Obliterated.

A train has crashed into the walls around my heart and left the old me dead. Obliterated.

* * *

On the ride home from school, Skara sat quietly in the back of Aric's Tundra. She hadn't felt quite herself since the accident. The old Skara had been brutally murdered.

* * *

_November 21__st__ of last year. Skara waited impatiently at home for her parents return from their anniversary trip to Ireland. Their ETA was fifteen minutes away. Skara gripped her cell phone in her hand, nearly crushing it with anticipation. "We'll call as soon as we land, honey." She heard those words over and over in her head. She became overwhelmed with emotion, excitement, love. Her relationship wither parents was strong, close; unlike most teens, Skara loved and respected her parents._

_The ring of the phone tore her away from her thoughts. She was taken aback when she noticed she didn't recognize the number on the caller ID. Her mind stuck a toe into the cold pool of possibility, and her heart sank momentarily, but she was not one to jump to conclusions. She answered._

_

* * *

  
_

Skara numbly remembered the night her parents never made it home. She remembered the tone of voice of the police officer who became the bearer of bad news. With no more tears to cry, she sat, silent and stony, in the back seat.

"Here we are! I'll pick you up again tomorrow. Hey, you ok…" Aric began to ask her, but before he could expect a response, the door to the truck had slammed shut and Skara was trudging her way up to the giant front door of her foster home.

Skara had been taken in by a friend of her parents, Seamus Newton. He had a daughter, Jessica, whose mother had also passed. But she never seemed as bothered by this as Skara was by the passing of her own parents.

The Newtons were a wealthy family; there was no getting around that. Mr. Newton had money in the stock market, but of course, he was always very vague about where he invested. But regardless, they supplied Skara with anything and everything she could want. Her welcome basket had included an iPod Touch and a new digital camera, among various other designer labels. The family was kind and generous, a far cry from the endless horrible possibilities of foster homes that could have been hers. And she was grateful for them.

But tonight she had come home upset again. She skipped dinner, which had been prepared by Jessica, with some help from Cecelia, their maid. She declined Jess's invitation to watch a comedy in the theater. And she passed up Seamus's offer of Cold Stone and some mall time.

Tonight, Skara went straight to her room, powered on her shiny new computer, and played some mind-numbing computer games until she could no longer keep her eyes open. Video games were her therapy, and music was her prescription. After playing for a few hours, Skara curled up in her huge bed and flicked her thumb over the screen of her iPod Touch until she decided upon a little Andy McKee to lull her to sleep.

Skara's dreams that night were all but predictable.

* * *

_There were thousands of faces she'd never seen, crowded around her, cheering, screaming, shouting. She found herself dressed in her favorite Children of Bodom shirt and comfiest jeans, pushing her way through the crowds of people. Just when she thought she would never see the edge of the sea of swaying bodies, a large platform appeared, seeming to rise up out of the dirt and mud. As she reached the edge of the crowd and approached the stage, she saw Aric, standing at the foot of the stairs that climbed up the platform. He motioned for her to go, up the stairs, onto the stage. Hesitant for one second too many, she felt herself being shoved violently up the stairs and then falling, only to land on something cool, solid, and strong. Comforting.  


* * *

  
_

Skara awoke with a jolt, lying on the floor, clutching a pillow. She was caked in sweat, and realized the familiar hum of the air conditioner had stopped. She promptly adjusted the thermostat and lay herself back down to sleep, but sleep eluded her until the sun rose.

Having gotten up earlier than usual, Skara had time to plan her outfit for school, as she rarely ever did. Today she had finally ventured into the closet full of new clothes the Newtons had bought her. Most of it was too pastel, too Sunday-at-church-on-Easter. She decided on a khaki miniskirt, a brown leather belt, and a navy blue spaghetti strap top. Her accessories remained the same every day; she wore her Chuck Taylors (from seventh grade) and three necklaces that she never left home without. The first was a woven hemp choker with a bronze globe the size of a 25 cent gumball, which also doubled as a bell. The others were thin leather ropes, one with a pewter albatross, and one with a carved wooden leaf.

She waited outside on the curb, looking to the horizon for the white Tundra to come rumbling up to her house. It was overcast but just short of rainy, her favorite kind of day. This lifted her mood. Her dream had kept her mind off of what upset her. And then Aric arrived.

"C'mon, let's get some coffee and donuts before class starts." He smiled his bright, perfect smile. He shook his long brown hair out of his face to get a closer look at her.

"Ok, don't stare." She said, both embarrassed and annoyed.

"Sorry. You never dress up like that…" He trailed off.

She ignored him. "Are we going to eat or what? I'm starving."

* * *

As Skara walked through the hallways at her school, Edward seemed to appear everywhere. He was always with the same people, his adopted siblings. They had at least this in common, being adopted. They were stunningly beautiful, even the boys, Emmett and Jasper. Alice and Rosalie, his sisters, were both runway-worthy. Edward was no exception. This was intimidating, but she felt an urge to talk to him in their first period every day. About a week after she started school, something extraordinary (for her) happened.

That day, there was another movie day in Mr. Kroner's class. The room was dark, and the seat next to Skara was empty. She had her head down, slowly nodding off. Suddenly she inhaled deeply and smelled the faint, lovely smell of nice cologne. She raised her head to see Edward sitting next to her, his body totally facing her, not even trying to pretend to watch the movie.

"Hello." He said, coolly and with confidence.

"H-hi…" Was her reply.

"I noticed you don't seem to get out much around here. I was wondering if you'd like to go to dinner this weekend."

"With you?"

"No, I thought I'd just drop you off and let you go alone," he said sarcastically, but with a straight face. Seeing that she didn't catch his sarcasm, he continued to confirm their date for Saturday night. The old Skara would have definitely declined, but the old Skara had been obliterated.


End file.
